Examine the Factors That Affect Success in a Multicultural Workplace

African Journal of Business Management Vol. 4(13), pp. 2625-2633, 4 October, 2010 Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJBM ISSN 1993-8233 ©2010 Academic Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Creating synergy for cross-cultural teams in international R&D projects
S. X. Zeng1*, C. M. Tam2, Thomas K. L. Tong2 and P. M. Sun1
2

Antai School of Management, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200052, China. College of Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Accepted 3 February, 2010

1

Cross-cultural management is often regarded as one of the disciplines in international management focusing on cultural encounters between what are perceived as well-defined and homogeneous entities: the organization and the nation-state and offering tools to handle cultural differences seen as sources of conflict or miscommunication. Hence, there is a pressing need to understand the cultural diversity and exercise proper measures to manage it. This paper explores the factors affecting crosscultural management in R&D projects using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Using the method of PCA, this paper explores the factors affecting international R&D project management under a combination of Chinese and Western cultures. Eight principal components are extracted and labeled, and the top two include: (1) behavioral characteristics; and (2) social environment. In behavioral characteristics, it is found that Chinese prefer to work in a stable environment and they may find difficulties in adapting to an unfamiliar environment comparing to the West. They would strongly react to losing face events such as being criticized by managers publicly, or being evaluated by an unfamiliar performance evaluation method, etc. Under the social environment, the Chinese government, as an indispensable mediator in the social environment of projects, plays an important role in approving projects, allocating resources, and arranging finance. For

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